California Court of Appeal

Defendant's convictions on 13 counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years of age, and two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child under 14 years of age, are affirmed, where: 1) the presence of a support dog pursuant to a trial court's authority under Evidence Code section 765 is not inherently prejudicial and does not, as a matter of law, violate a criminal defendant's federal constitutional rights to a fair trial and to confront witnesses against him or her; 2) a case-specific finding that an individual witness needs the presence of a support dog is not required by the federal Constitution; and here, 3) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing a support dog to be present during the testimony of the two child witnesses.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/21/2014
• Published 07/21/2014

Judges

• McDONALD

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel